OIAHP is a collaboration formed by Ohio University College of Health Sciences and Professions and the University of Toledo’s College of Health and Human Services. Hodges, until last year, was director of the Ohio Department of Health.

Using state data on fatal opioid overdose deaths, the reports authors calculated the years of life lost based on standard life expectancy figures from the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Similar calculations are often done to determine the “burden” a disease or injury has on society.

The lost life from opioid overdoses during the seven-year period amounted to more years than Ohioans lost to heart disease and just slightly less than from cancerous tumors during the same time.

Opioid overdose deaths also added up to more years of life lost from all suicides and homicides in the Ohio from 2010 to 2016.

The losses from opioid overdose deaths nationally has shortened the expected lifespan in America by more than two months, Randy Leite, dean of Ohio University’s College of Health Sciences and Professions.

“That’s the real cost of this,” he said. “It’s a picture of how much are losing…. Years of working, years with children.”

Ohio’s southwest and northeast regions, along with its more populated metro areas, have been hardest hit by opioid overdose deaths and those areas have experienced more years of lost life.

In Cuyahoga County, opioid overdose fatalities during the seven-year period amounted to 61,939 years of life loss.

The number of fatal drug-related overdoses continued to increase in Cuyahoga County to 727 in 2017, according to the information the Medical Examiner’s office released earlier this week. The majority of the deaths involved fentanyl, carfentanil and heroin.

While a report can quantify the losses in numbers, we have to remember “each of those lives had value,” Scott Osiecki, CEO of the Cuyahoga County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board said.”We are missing employees, mothers, fathers and even potential parents.”

Osiecki said though the losses are enormous, as a community we need to remember that with support people who currently are dealing with the disease of addiction can get better and live those years of life.

Contact Us

Copyright 2017 Greater Than Heroin | All Rights Reserved. | 929 Pearl Road, Brunswick, OH 44212 • feedback@GreaterThanHeroin.com • 330.460.7393
Greater than Heroin is working to collect information and resources from throughout the region. Listed are many groups, organizations and programs that have been recommended from various sources. We cannot attest to the quality of the programs that are listed within this website. Please use the information found here as a resource and guide for your own discernment and decision-making.